The present invention relates generally to the field of particle fabrication and in particular to particle compositions and methods of making such compositions that prevent agglomeration, thereby maintaining substantially the same particle size and/or shape.
Maintaining particle size and/or shape, particularly when fabricating metallic-containing particle compositions has proven particularly difficult. This is because metallic-containing particles are typically treated and/or formed at high temperatures (e.g, for phase transition, magnetic hardening, annealing) which typically lead to agglomeration and/or sintering of such particles. For magnetic particles, preventing agglomeration and/or sintering is also important for direct application of particles with high magnetocrystalline anisotropy.
While techniques, such as doping to reduce the transition temperature and coating with high melting point materials, have been used to try to overcome agglomeration and/or sintering, as well as to improve magnetic performance of particles, these methods have resulted in only partial success, are more expensive and/or provide low yields. In addition, current techniques are often deleterious to the magnetic properties of the particles.
As such, there remains a need to prevent agglomeration and/or avoid sintering of metal-containing particles, such that the yield includes disperse particles of substantially the same size and/or shape as the starting particle. When providing for magnetic particles with high magnetic anisotropy, there remains a need to fabricate particles that are disperse and of substantially the same size in order for further use as advanced materials.